Deadpool's adventure into the multiverse has shattered even the highest expectations, posing one question for fans and studio execs alike: What went so right?
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00:00Coming in above the already ridiculous $200 million estimates over the weekend, director
00:05Sean Levy's Deadpool and Wolverine pulled in an astonishing $211 million domestically
00:10in its debut, representing the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated movie ever.
00:16The original Deadpool was the previous record holder, so we're firmly in record-shattering
00:20territory here — well beyond record-breaking, in fact.
00:23On top of that, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe took in $233.3 million
00:29overseas, giving the film a whopping $444.3 million global start.
00:35That means it made more money in a single weekend than many recent installments made
00:39in their entire theatrical runs.
00:41So what went right for this long-awaited third installment of the Deadpool franchise?
00:45How did the MCU go R-rated so successfully for the first time ever?
00:50Let's get into it.
00:52The reviews for Deadpool and Wolverine were generally positive, with the MCU's latest
00:56holding a 79% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
01:00That's fine, of course, but nowhere near the top end of the pack, and it's certainly not
01:03the highest-rated Deadpool movie to date by that metric alone.
01:07Be that as it may, it was crystal clear that this movie was going to deliver the crowd-pleasing
01:11moments that audiences wanted out of it.
01:13As Slash Films' Chris Evangelista pointed out in his 5 out of 10 review, they want to
01:20see Hugh Jackman wearing Wolverine's classic yellow costume, they want Deadpool to break
01:24the fourth wall, and they'll get all of that.
01:27Even in what was a mixed assessment of the film at best, audiences were assured they
01:30were going to get precisely what they were looking for.
01:33To that end, it currently holds a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes to go with an A Cinema
01:39score.
01:40This is the very definition of a crowd-pleaser.
01:44Longtime superhero fans have waited an awfully long time to see a proper team-up between
01:48these two characters.
01:49The fact that X-Men Origins' Wolverine fumbled Deadpool so badly 15 years ago only further
01:54fueled the desire to see Deadpool and Wolverine reunite properly.
01:58When Hugh Jackman un-retired to put the claws back on for the third Deadpool, this movie's
02:02box office prospects went up significantly.
02:05It was just hard to predict it would be this much.
02:08The opening weekend numbers speak volumes about how much general audiences truly wanted
02:12to see these two interact with one another.
02:14That's Wolverine.
02:15You're damn straight it is.
02:16Disney brought him back.
02:17They're going to make him do this until he's 90.
02:19Notably, Jackman has played Wolverine for well over two decades now.
02:23Reynolds has been Deadpool for nearly a decade after spending another decade trying to get
02:27his first solo movie off the ground.
02:29Reynolds and Jackman are also good friends in real life, in addition to being bankable
02:33A-list movie stars.
02:34This all added up to the perfect storm of must-see blockbuster entertainment.
02:40Spider-Man No Way Home made $1.9 billion worldwide, becoming one of the biggest movies ever at
02:45a time where nobody knew if movies could even make that kind of money anymore.
02:49It did so by promising to reunite villains and heroes from every era of the Spider-Man
02:54franchise in one movie, using the Marvel multiverse as a tool to do so.
02:58This was a storytelling device used in mainstream comics for decades, employed cinematically
03:02to maximize on generational nostalgia.
03:05Deadpool and Wolverine managed to tap into something very similar, albeit through that
03:09very specific Deadpool filter.
03:12Without spoiling anything, the film serves as a farewell to the Fox era of Marvel movies,
03:16with tons of cameos, surprise appearances, and send-offs for characters from an era of
03:20superheroes that is now well and truly behind us.
03:23It operates a little differently in that the movie understands the pre-MCU Marvel films
03:27were absolutely a mixed bag, directly acknowledging that along the way.
03:32Even so, audiences entered this film understanding the multiverse well enough to know that some
03:36fun surprises were in store, which likely fueled their desire to see it as soon as possible.
03:41This is also a situation in which people wanted the surprises preserved, and the best way
03:45to avoid major spoilers is see it early.
03:49Not only is Ryan Reynolds a major star, but he's also something of a marketing genius.
03:54Dating back to the brilliant marketing campaign that helped make the first Deadpool a record-breaking
03:58box office success, Reynolds has demonstrated a true ability to help his projects and products
04:03stand out in the crowd.
04:04Fortunately for Disney and Marvel Studios, Reynolds brought his A-game to the Deadpool
04:08and Wolverine campaign as well.
04:10From understanding the appeal of Dogpool to having fun with the leaks that were happening
04:14online well before the movie's release, he helped elevate the whole experience for fans.
04:19Overall, the marketing campaign was brilliantly executed, and while that obviously extends
04:23beyond Reynolds, he certainly had a hand in it.
04:26He and Levy even had the wherewithal to change the movie's title from Deadpool and Friend
04:30at the last second.
04:32Top to bottom, this was a masterclass in marketing a blockbuster to the masses.
04:37Not to be missed in the conversation is the fact that Deadpool and Wolverine is the only
04:41Marvel Cinematic Universe movie coming our way in 2024.
04:45The Marvel Studios slate got shuffled around in 2023 in no small part because the studios
04:50allowed the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes to drag on.
04:54The result of this is that only one film from this franchise will hit theaters this year.
04:59Audiences have become accustomed to roughly three MCU films per year, making 2024 a light
05:04year for the MCU, relatively speaking.
05:06When you also consider that last year's Ant-Man and the Wasp, Quantumania, and the Marvels
05:11didn't resonate all that well with general audiences, it's clear that a real appetite
05:15had developed for Deadpool and Wolverine.
05:17Whether or not Marvel Studios will actually take a cue and slow things down a bit in the
05:20future remains to be seen, but there is certainly value in not oversaturating the market.
05:25Too much of a good thing can ruin a good thing.